Former Indian batsman, Aakash Chopra, revealed how John Buchanan wanted to remove Sourav Ganguly as the skipper of Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). Chopra said during the inaugural season of Indian Premier League in 2008, both Ganguly and Buchanan shared a good relationship.
However, soon, things went downhill and Buchanan eyed on a Ganguly’s dismissal as a captain of the team.
“When IPL started in 2008, KKR had the likes of Sourav Ganguly, Ricky Ponting, and Brendon McCullum. Ganguly was the captain and John Buchanan was the coach. The relationship between Ganguly and Buchanan was alright, to begin with, but later it went downhill,” Aakash Chopra said on his YouTube channel.
“Buchanan had a different way of working and Ganguly had a different temperament. Buchanan wanted to remove Ganguly as the captain and this happened in 2009,” he added.
Ganguly led the KKR in 2008, but he was sacked the following year, and Brencon McCullum was given the power of leadership. KKR finished sixth in the points table in 2008 while it stood last in the following year, 2009.
“Eventually, John Buchanan had to leave. Some of the things were overstated as they talked about making three captains, which was not the case,” Chopra said.
“One thing that I had against him (Buchanan) was that he gathered all his friends and associates there, the whole family had come in. There were a lot of his people, I mean, that did not go down very well. On the one hand, you carefully pick and choose players for the squad, on the other hand, the whole family’s travelling with you as support staff. That was all happening,” he further added.
Initially, KKR wasn’t able to leave a mark on the IPL scoreboard. However fate had its won plan when Gautam Gambhir took the captaincy and the team won twice, in 2012 and 2014.
At present, KKR is led by Dinesh Kartik and McCullum has been appointed as the coach. The 13th edition of the franchise was to commence on march 29, however is on hold due to the current coronavirus pandemic outburst, and has been postponed indefinitely.
Do you agree Sourav Ganguly was a better choice than Brendon McCullum as a captain? Let us know your views in the comments below.
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